


The Opposite of (B)romance

by GracelingwithPoiseWithoutGrace



Series: (B)romantic Debacles [2]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Cute, Fluff, M/M, Self Esteem Issues, Sweet, body image issues, coffee shop date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-28 05:50:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20059072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GracelingwithPoiseWithoutGrace/pseuds/GracelingwithPoiseWithoutGrace
Summary: After the accidental valentine mix-up and the subsequent identity realizations, Jamie and Tyler are finally meeting for the first time. Jamie is insecure and freaking out. Tyler is charming and sweet and also freaking out. Cuteness ensues.





	The Opposite of (B)romance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [acourt0226](https://archiveofourown.org/users/acourt0226/gifts).

> Thank you to everyone who commented on (B)romance -- you inspired me to write this short sequel, and I may keep going with it. Particular thanks to acourt0226 -- your comment was the push I needed and I really appreciate it. I wrote most of this in one go one late night and I really enjoyed coming back to writing. Hope you all enjoy this! <3

Until Tyler was sitting right across from him, some part of Jamie was convinced that the whole thing was a hoax.

  
Maybe not the whole accidental valentine mix up, but at least the radical coincidence of Tyler being That Dude With The Sleeves. That had to be fake. There was no way that Jamie was _that_ cursed. Or lucky.

  
Except there he was, there with sweaty hands clenching his coffee. He was sipping his coffee, slowly starting to panic about the sweaty state of his hands, his pits, his entire frickin’ body, when the door chimed. Jamie looked up and promptly choked on his ice cold water.

  
He really was that cursed.

  
While Jamie was trying not to die, Tyler held the door for the people exiting. The cowardly part of Jamie (and that was a pretty big part right about now) was hoping that maybe Tyler would miss him in the crowd). Jamie’s broad shoulders hunched in, his body instinctively trying to make itself smaller.

  
But then Tyler saw him over some lady’s stroller and his entire face lit up when he smiled. His face was so open and genuine that Jamie felt his eyes crinkling up in an answering smile before his natural awkwardness could hide it.

  
Tyler moved around the crowd and slid into the booth, across from Jamie. Their knees knocked against each other.

  
“Sorry,” Jamie automatically apologized, trying to shrink his bulk away from Tyler.

  
Tyler smiled, his brown eyes catching Jamie’s. “Of course the first thing you’d say to me is sorry,” he teased. “How Canadian of you.”

  
Jamie ducked his head, a red flush heating his cheeks. “How’d you know I’m Canadian?”

  
Now it was Tyler’s turn to blush. “I may have creeped your insta,” he confessed. “I like your dog.”

  
Jamie’s smile lost its self consciousness and his posture opened up. “Sasha’s the best,” he said, leaning towards Tyler. “I just got her last summer and I can’t imagine not having her around.”

  
Tyler leaned forward, his hands spreading wide, his posture matching Jamie’s. “Me too! I got Marshall a few years ago, and then I got Cash a few months after.” Tyler shrugged, his mouth twisting in a wry smile. “I couldn’t just leave Marshall alone, you know?”

  
Jamie nodded. “Yeah, I’m a little worried about Sasha being alone too much, but I’ve been waiting to find the right dog to get along with her.”

  
Tyler leaned back and took a sip from his ice cap. Jamie’s attention was dragged to the way Tyler’s lush mouth closed around the straw as he drank.

  
Jamie’s cheeks stained red, and he leaned back, away from Tyler, his hands coming around to rest on his thighs, his arms stiff. “It's hard to find the right one.”

  
As soon as he said it, Jamie wished that Jordie was here so that someone could put him out of his misery, either with a bullet or a well-timed chirp. But all he had was his dumb mouth and Tyler’s – actually, the less said about Tyler’s mouth the better. Tyler had mercifully stopped sucking on the straw and put his drink down, but the way he was looking at Jamie made him equally nervous.

  
His gaze was less open than before, but his eyes were suddenly heavy with the promise of something Jamie wasn’t ready for. Not from anyone, and certainly not from a guy as hot as Tyler.

  
“Ice cap!” Jamie blurts. Tyler stares at him and Jamie ducks his head, his hair flopping down in front of his eyes for a moment before he pushes it back again. “I mean, how’s your -- your ice cap?” he stutters, his own hands clenching around his tea.

  
Tyler takes another long sip before he said, “_Very_ satisfactory.”

  
Jamie nodded his head once in agreement and then couldn’t stop nodding. “Good,” he said, his voice unexpectedly becoming quiet. He coughed. “That’s good.”

  
Tyler punctuated the awkward pause with another loud sip, Jamie’s eyes drawn to his mouth again, even as they pleaded with Tyler to let him hide. “So am I the guy?”

  
This time Jamie really does choke, and it takes some aggressive coughing to clear his throat, his eyes watering and his throat burning. “What?”

  
Tyler’s face is still and his body is lounging against the booth’s back, but his brown eyes are watching Jamie closely, concealing his coiled tension. “Am I the guy from your chem class?”

  
_The one you had a massive crush on and said was fucking hot. _

  
The subtext is unspoken, but it might as well be written in the sky for how obvious it is lying there between both of them.

  
Jamie’s hands start sliding down his thighs repetitively as he fumbles around for an answer that doesn’t make him seem like a loser. “Uh, I – I mean -- ” He looks up at Tyler, his big cows eyes pleading with him to let him go. His hands twist against his pants. “Does it really matter?”

  
Tyler won’t stop looking at Jamie and Jamie’s neck is burning red hot and his stomach is fluttering like crazy and his heart is pounding so loud he can hardly hear Tyler.

  
“I think it does.”

  
Without any consultation with his brain, Jamie groans and rubs a hand over his face. “You’re so much more blunt in person,” he says, unthinking.

  
Tyler laughs unexpectedly, shocking Jamie into taking his hand off his face. “And you’re way more shy,” he says.

  
Jamie shrinks into the seat.

  
Tyler sees the change and leans over the table, his hand resting on top of Jamie’s arm lightly. “No, it’s not a bad thing.” He sweeps him thumb over Jamie’s arm. “It’s sweet.”

  
Jamie’s head jerks up at the contact, his arm burning from Tyler’s hand, and he has to look at Tyler, his cheeks so hot he doubts that they’ll ever cool down again. “It’s – easier – when I don’t have to -- ” He looks over Tyler, his eyes torn with longing. The contrast between Tyler’s ridiculously toned and muscular body – clearly the product of hard work and fucking amazing genes – and his beautiful, beautiful face, with Jamie’s soft, chunky, body on his hulking frame and his dumb dopey face was killing him. It’d killed him in university, and it was killing him now.

  
“You’re so pretty,” he whispered, almost to himself, the words edged in despair. “It’s hard to -- ”

  
Tyler didn’t say anything right away, but his hand somehow pulled Jamie’s hand from his leg and squeezed it – the gesture soothing rather than seductive in its anchoring weight. “Jamie, I’m not disappointed.” The words were soft, a gentleness in Tyler’s voice that Jamie hadn’t heard before from anyone. He kept looking at the table. “I was worried that I was a disappointment. That I wouldn’t be the guy, or that I would be him and you wouldn’t like me once you got past all of this.” He motioned at his beautiful face dismissively, like none of that mattered.

  
Tyler’s words were so unexpected and so contrary to Jamie’s inner monologue and predictions for how this would go that he forgot to fear Tyler’s judgment. He lifted his gaze from the table.

  
Jamie finally looked at Tyler properly. And yeah, he was That Dude With The Sleeves, but he also had soft eyes, a crooked smile, and a vulnerability lingering in the way his mouth was tight in the corners.

  
Tyler was just Tyler, and Jamie _liked_ him.

  
As if that realization had freed his frozen muscles, Jamie’s thumb stroked the back of Tyler’s hand as soft as a feather -- and suddenly they weren’t gripping hands, but _holding_ hands. Jamie’s eyes couldn’t stop tracing a triangle from Tyler’s eyes to his mouth and back again.

  
Jamie opened Tyler’s hand delicately, and brushed his thumb across Tyler’s palm, making him suck in a gasp and bite his lower lip, his cheeks going red for the first time. Jamie liked that he could make Tyler blush.

  
He wanted to do it again, so he said, with deliberate casualness, “You’re definitely the guy.”

  
And Tyler’s eyes snapped up from their hands to meet Jamie’s, his mouth open slightly in shock, and Jamie felt his heart thump at seeing the absolute, surprised delight in Tyler’s eyes. “Really?”

  
Jamie nodded his head. “Really.” He punctuated the statement with a bold sweep of his thumb across Tyler’s palm. He saw the way Tyler’s eyes fluttered shut for a second and the way his teeth worried his lip. He thought about how he wanted to worry that lip, and of how Tyler might let him.

  
Tyler’s eyes snapped open and he squeezed Jamie’s hand. “Do you want to go out with me?”

  
Jamie’s heart thumped. “Okay.”

  
Tyler’s mouth spread into a wide, dazzling grin. “Okay.”


End file.
